Funding for community art projects

Mar 11 2010 by Marjorie Kerr, West Lothian Courier

FOUR West Lothian communities are set to benefit from grants to bring art to their area.

Boghall, Broxburn, Armadale and Dedridge in Livingston, have been awarded grants totalling £90,300 to develop original pieces of art to help them improve or reclaim some of the public spaces where they live.

The grants are the first to be approved under a new scheme called Grassroots Public Art launched in September last year which invited local groups or individuals to apply for grants of between £10,000 and £24,000.

Nine applications were considered and the first four selected were Mayfield Community House in Armadale (£24,000), The Shale People Project in Broxburn/Uphall (£24,000), Dedridge Burn Plantation in Livingston (£21,600) and The pARTners in the Park in Boghall (£20,700).

Mayfield Community House intends to transform their communal garden.

The Sunny Dale Association will work with volunteers and an artist to create a quiet, calm garden space that can be used by groups and bring the community together.

The Shale People Project will create five new pieces of art to form a creative trail through the communities of Broxburn and Uphall.

Made up of two murals, a large scale banner, a people trail, online blog and facebook sites, the project will be led by local artist Shirley-Anne Murdoch.

Dedridge Burn Plantation, already developed as an important green space, will be further improved by the addition of high quality artworks.

These will be strong, sustainable features created by an artist working with members of Dedridge Environment Ecology Project (DEEP) for locals to enjoy.

The partners in the Park plan to deliver a sculpture in the heart of Boghall.

The sculpture will be shaped by the community.

The funding for this round of Grassroots Public Art Grants is made up of £44,000 generated from contributions made by developers to West Lothian Council's Public Art Fund, £50,000 from the Scottish Arts Council and £5,000 from both Arts Services and West Lothian on the Move.

The scheme is administered by West Lothian Council's Arts Services.